Living and Parenting as a Liberal Feminist Christian

On Modesty & Swimwear

Posted on June 21, 2013

Earlier this week, a video of a speech by model/actress/swimwear designer Jessica Rey started making the rounds on Facebook. Titled “The Evolution of the Swimsuit,” the presentation resembles a TED talk in a lot of ways: a well-dressed and attractive presenter on a stage with some audio-visual support. Rey starts out by asking why, in the 1960 song, “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini,” the main character is afraid to come out of the dressing room. Using this as her set-up, she explains the history of the bathing suit from the days when women wore full dresses to swim (and were transported to the beach in big wooden boxes) to now, when, according to Rey, all anyone wears are bikinis.

Rey herself used to wear bikinis, but eventually found that she was more comfortable in swimsuits that covered more. In an interview, she explained:

I used to live by the motto, “if you’ve got it, flaunt it!” and slowly began to realize that I was drawing the wrong kind of attention to myself. It was almost as if I was saying, “my body is the best and only good thing about me!” I didn’t know that clothing speaks a language- and I soon found out that my clothing was saying something totally different than what my words were (especially when it came to attracting the right kind of guy). I find that people take me more seriously when I am more covered up and I am also more comfortable, as opposed to pulling and tugging at my clothes all day long.

I’ve never worn a bikini. When I was in high school, I thought bikinis were immodest and therefore off limits to good Christians like me, and I stupidly thought I was too fat to wear one even if I wanted to. These days, I’m like Jessica in the sense that I don’t like to be pulling and tugging at my bathing suit, and I’d rather have a full-figure suit. When Rey felt like there weren’t a lot of cute, fashionable options for her, she decided to make her own swimsuits, and that eventually led to her company.

I mean, look at those suits! So cute! So fun! I love the colors and the design, and looking at those prices, I’m really impressed. As someone who is becoming more aware of sweatshop labor, I’m also supportive of the fact that Rey Swimwear is manufactured in California. That’s not out of some pro-America philosophy, but out of relief that the company is having to follow United States employment law for whoever it is that sews the swimwear. I love that women who want to be modest also have the right to be fashionable, and that these swimsuits do that.

With all that said, there are a few trouble spots to be aware of with the Rey Swimwear philosophy and marketing. I don’t mean to say that it’s a bad company, or that you shouldn’t buy swimwear from them. I don’t think that Jessica Rey is a bad or immoral person. I do think it’s important to look critically at companies that are trying to promote a message in addition to a product, though, and I want to look at the message of Rey Swimwear. I would ask a few specific questions of the Rey Swimwear message.

Question #1: Is it true that the options for swimwear are super-revealing bikinis or matronly, unfashionable suits that resemble tents?

This makes up a pretty major element of Rey’s claims. She seems to feel that there were no other options out there for her other than bikinis, or that the only options were really matronly and ugly. Is that true, though? Just a quick peek at ModCloth shows that there are a ton of fashion-forward, one-piece bathing suits available in a wide price range. Here are a few of the ones I found:

I don’t disagree that bikinis are the most common type of swimwear you’re going to see on the beach or at the pool, but they are far from the only thing available.

Question #2: Is Rey correctly representing the Princeton study that she references in her video?

This was, to me, the biggest red flag in her presentation. Rey references Susan Fiske‘s study on “social emotion and the brain.” Part of this study was focused on the way that heterosexual males’ brains respond to images of fully- and scantily-clad women’s bodies. A little Googling revealed to me that Fiske’s study is being used all over the place in promotion of modesty. Basically, Rey, some news outlets, and countless modesty promoters believe that because some men experienced heightened activity in the section of the brain dedicated to action and the use of tools, it can be argued that men’s brains are wired to see women in bikinis as objects, not people.

Now, I think this is interesting. Objectification is a real problem, and it looks like Fiske was studying some of the ways that our brains determine how we view and interact with people, even if we do not consider ourselves to be actively sexist or sexually aggressive. I like what Fiske was quoted as saying in the Guardian: “When there are sexualised images in the workplace, it’s hard for people not to think about their female colleagues in those terms. It spills over from the images to the workplace.”

However, as a neuroscience blogger points out, this doesn’t make for a slam dunk argument that men see women in bikinis as objects. The study shows that the action part of the brain was active when exposed to these pictures, but not what that meant.

My concern is less with whether or not men objectify women in bikinis–I believe that happens–but whether or not that means women should stop wearing bikinis, which is what Rey and other modesty proponents are suggesting.

Objectification is never the fault of the person being objectified. I cannot turn myself into an object. I cannot use myself as an object. Only someone else can do that to me, and those actions are up to them, not me. Men can objectify a woman in one-piece bathing suit as easily as they can in a bikini–does that mean women should abandon swimming altogether? Of course not.

To me, this study could be useful in the same way as the Implicit Association Test, which helps people identify their unconscious prejudices against specific categories of people. When you take the test and learn that you have an intrinsic and learned prejudice toward a group of people, you figure out how to correct that. Men who view women as objects have been trained to do so by our culture, including the modesty movement. A test that proves that that happens is interesting, but it doesn’t mean that it’s okay. If men are made aware that they do this, perhaps they can work on not viewing women like objects, no matter what they are wearing.

Question #3: Are the Rey Swimswear suits modest?

Of course they are. I mean, right? They don’t show off cleavage, they don’t have high-cut legs, they have the option of an underwire. They’re certainly modest.

Except where they’re not.

Modesty is a completely subjective concept that varies from culture to culture, year to year. What we’re calling modest in the Rey Swimwear catalog would be considered obscene in some other countries or in our own past. In some ultra-conservative religious families here in the States, the swimsuits wouldn’t make the cut for modesty.

The swimsuits fight snugly to the body. I’m guessing most women would trim, wax, or shave their bikini zone before wearing one, which says to me that they’re still pretty revealing. The models wearing the suits are attractive and sexy–I think just about anyone would look pretty sexy in these bathing suits.

That’s probably why several of them resemble the super-cute and super-sexy bathing suits available at Pin-Up Girl Clothing.

Simply by changing the marketing, Rey Swimwear could be advertised as sexy and classic, not modest and adorable.

Rey’s point is that you should be able to look good and be modest at the same time, but who gets to decide what modest means?

I’ll close with an anecdote:

My daughter Ruthie is three years old, and when she has water days at daycare, she is required to wear a one-piece swimsuit or a tankini. No two-pieces. The boys, of course, get to wear their swim trunks. Now, these are kids who are young enough that they have two open bathroom stalls, side by side, and sometimes they don’t quite get their pants up before they walk over to the sink to wash their hands. These kids see each other in various stages of undress all the time. Yet we send the message from the very beginning when it comes to swimsuits: boys, it’s fine for you to be shirtless, but girls, you need to cover yourself up. The other day Ruthie and I had to have an extended conversation about why adult women aren’t generally allowed to show their nipples in public, while adult men are. Why is that, Ruthie? Because of the stupidity of modesty. Because we’ve bought into the lie that the female body is inherently sexualized: even when it is three years old, or breastfeeding, or walking down the street minding its own business.

Adding a little bit more material to a bathing suit doesn’t fix our problem. I’m glad that Jessica Rey is offering more options for women to wear what they are comfortable wearing, but if you’re going to address the problems of objectification and sexualization of all female bodies, it’s going to take a lot more than bathing suits made out of slightly more material.

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23 Comments

Super post. I, too, went looking for non-bikini swimwear, and found tons and tons of it. I also like how you point out that the fact that objectification happens is important, but does not mean that it is the subject’s responsibility to make it stop.
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I’m interested in your last anecdote about Ruthie, because it’s something that I worry about with my daughter, a lot. She runs around buck naked in our house, and sometimes in our backyard, with no problem, and I’m happy with that. At the pool, though, I’m more wary. How do you draw the line between “your body is your body and there’s no reason to fear it or hide it” and “there may be people here in a position of inherent power (due to age) who will sexualize you based on your clothing, and I want to mitigate that.” In other words, it’s not her fault if creepy old men are looking at her in a bikini and sexualizing her, but I want to protect her from that. As much as I can. Until, at least, she has the self-awareness and age to make those choices for herself.
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Am I being totally hypocritical? I struggle with it.

I watched the video earlier this week, and I cringed a little too. There was a lot of subtle slut-shaming, and even though I, personally, don’t wear bikinis for mostly practical, personal reasons, I don’t have a problem with them in general. Not all bikinis are super sexy, and even the ones that are, well, that’s a girl’s prerogative.

What I thought was interesting was that someone had linked to the study on the page that I saw this video, and the study elaborates on a few areas that Rey sort of breezed by in order to sell her product. The study initially ranked the male participants on levels of sexism–mild to hostile, more or less–and it was the hostile sexists who, by and large, viewed women in bikinis as objects. (That isn’t really news though, is it?)

That reminds me of this picture I saw from 1922. It shows some flappers in swimsuits a bit more “modest” than the Rey examples, and they’re being arrested for public indecency.

Also, isn’t there a flaw in the Princeton study in that they’re showing how men react to pictures? Pictures are objects. I wonder what the result would be if the men got to talk to real women, bikini-clad or not.

hey liz – this is a topic i have circled back to numerous times for various reasons. like you, body image was a reason at one point, then the applied american christian value of modesty later on. i say “american” because since living in europe, my eyes have been opened a bit more on this issue and i’ve only come out with more questions. my eyes have been opened could also be literal since, at times, there are some shocking sites in public parks and pools. however one thing that i have found unnerving but am trying to wrestle with is that little girls, up till the age of 10 or sometimes 12 often wear only a swimsuit bottom. in fact, girls suits are sold that way as well. in general, there is a “the human body is a functional thing” type of attitude here that seems to trump any sense of shame or perhaps even sexualization…. kind of.
this has struck me in christian circles too, because the topic of modesty honestly never seems to come up. i’ve asked girls my age and younger if it is something talked about in youth group and they just kind of gave me odd looks. in fact, we couldn’t even come up with a word for it in french. what does that say?
i realize i haven’t made any points here. but if you ever want to talk further about the concept of modesty, specifically as it regards to cultural differences – i’m game.

this is a great post. These are issues that come up a lot as a christian woman and mother of a little girl and a little boy. My children are encouraged to run around nude at home if they like, as do I and my husband. Now that my daughter is 5 I require her to not disrobe in public, not because i think there is a problem with it, but because this is the culture we live in. i will require the samefor my son when he is a little older(he is 2 now). We talk about how, in other parts of the world it is no issue for a woman to go topless. In America a lot of people are uncomfortable with this and we want to respect their sensibilities, even if ours are different.
Thank you for sharing your insight into this issue. I feel judged by other Christians often based on how I dress. I try to be sensitive to others, but personally i am very comfortable in my body. I wear a bikini. The top and bottoms are not skimpy, but it definitely bares my middle. I also breastfeed in public. I carry myself with dignitiy, and I don’t feel I should have to hide or be ashamed of the form God gave me. I don’t try to put it in anyones faces, but I think if some men have issues with how they view women they should deal with them, not blame the women.

This feels similar to the drinking issue to me. Can our actions encourage or discourage others from various thoughts or actions? Yes. Do we have the freedom to dress as we want? Yes. Should we make concessions depending on the culture we find ourselves in? Yes. Is it easy to figure out which concessions should be made and when? No. Is it easier to follow a rule? Yes.

while i agree with lezlie that part of modesty is a matter of consideration for others, a matter of limiting my freedom for the sake of others, i do think that this is only one element of the issue. what does wearing a bikini say about how i view my body? as an object with which to bring glory to my amazing abs and tight behind (if i were in possession of such body parts) or an object for God’s glory and purposes? i definitely struggle with teaching my daughter (and sons since women haven’t cornered the market on modesty) to be comfortable in her own skin and embrace her body as beautiful while also teaching her to be modest, in both her dress and attitude. i also think that people often miss the female to female aspect of modest. as i teach my sons to avert their eyes and control their thoughts,i have had to train myself to stop comparing to others. i greatly appreciate those women who show a little less for my sake as well as the men in our lives.

Susan, you’re not being hypocritical, but I don’t really have any good answers. It’s hard to navigate the landscape of telling a kid how their body will affect their experience in the world. I am so interested in the way that our bodies, their failures, and their strengths affect our intellectual and emotional lives–I’m also interested in the ways that other people’s perceived (but false) ownership of our bodies affects us.
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Eric, great points!
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Erica, I remember being in France and seeing a young girl who had clearly already started puberty, standing at the side of the road for the Tour’s publicity caravane in just her underwear bottoms. My mom and I were floored–not something we were used to seeing! I think I like the idea that you’re saying is more common in France, that the body’s inherent purpose is to function. I’m beginning to idealize a world in which the body is seen simply as a mode of transportation for the mind, UNLESS a body is actively participating in some other purpose (sexually, maternally, heroically, for entertainment, etc). I’m going to have to sort out my thoughts on that, though, because it’s really just coming to me now.
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Amy, I’m glad you bring up the idea of modesty of attitude, not just modesty of dress. I stand pretty firmly against any doctrine that promotes modesty of dress as a spiritual requirement or rule. I think modesty has been inflicted on women for too long, across numerous cultures, and that it usually only leads to further victimization of women’s bodies. However, I do think that there can be something celebrated in a woman’s personal decision to pursue modesty in spirit and dress, if it is truly her decision, and if it is not done out of adherence to a trivial rule. I hope that I would celebrate that woman’s decision to be modest as much as I would celebrate someone who did, indeed, decide to emphasize her awesome abs and butt because it brings her happiness. By the way, I’m really glad to hear you talking about the importance of teaching young men that the responsibility to protect their values is theirs, not the women in their lives–even if the women they surround themselves with do tend to support them in their endeavors after all.

There’s a lot of junk neuroscience out there, and junk interpretations of otherwise good neuroscience. It’s sad when people resort to use of questionable twists of data to make moral claims, if that’s what Rey is doing.

The point of wearing swimwear should be for swimming, shouldn’t it? So what do they wear at the premier, world-class swimming events: the Olympics? One-piece suits, that’s what. I can assure you, the Olympic athletes are not focused on who is looking at them or what those people are thinking; they are focused on their swimming. I can also assure you that almost everyone that watches an Olympic swimming event is focused on the performance of the swimmers rather than how they look or how much skin their swimwear reveals.

My point is that maybe in this case there is something to be said for taking our cues from the standards set by the Olympics – and for questioning our motives whenever and wherever we might diverge from them.

Do you think that’s true, Stefan? I don’t think most people, when wearing swimwear, are thinking about competitive swimming performance. And following this logic, should far more men be wearing Speedos when they go to the beach?

“Men can objectify a woman in one-piece bathing suit as easily as they can in a bikini”

I disagree. If I wanted to I could objectify any woman. However I guarantee you it’s a lot easier / comes more naturally if she’s in a bikini.

“…we’ve bought into the lie that the female body is inherently sexualized: even when it is three years old, or breastfeeding, or walking down the street minding its own business.”

Ok I’m not talking about the three year old part (and I know Ill get destroyed if I try to say anything about breast feeding) but as a male I can tell you that there is very much an element of truth in that. Sometimes it seems like girls will never understand: It’s not your fault, and you didn’t ask for it so I’m sorry about that but as much as I hate to admit this… we guys find female bodies very attractive in a sexual kind of way (shock horror). I try to control myself as much as possible and I hate the idea that I’m objectifying anyone but I completely agree with the notion that it’s easier to relate to someone as a human being if I’m not distracted by her boobs!

Gary, you need to work on those issues on your own. If you respect women at all, you’ll figure out a way to respect them no matter what they’re wearing. To objectify means to turn someone else into an object that you can manipulate for your enjoyment or use–even if that manipulation is only in your own mind. STOP DOING THAT. Seriously, stop it. No one cares if you’re sexually attracted to every woman you see. It’s when you strip her of her value as a person and view her as nothing more than an object for your enjoyment or use that there is a problem. I don’t care if you’re sexually attracted to every single woman you meet. But that’s *your* hangup, not the fault of the women you encounter.

but don’t you think it is possible for women to objectify themselves? to objectify others through the way they dress? if i wear immodest clothing knowing that it will be a distraction to others, then aren’t i manipulating them in order to gain the pleasure of their attention, admiration, etc? as a heterosexual woman, i find immodesty a distraction. yes, i need to control my own thoughts but certainly there is nothing wrong in giving me a little help. if i have a friend who is trying to lose weight, should i put a plate of cookies in front of him or her and expect them to control themselves? sure, they need to exercise self-control but don’t i owe them my support in that effort? cookies aren’t bad in and of themselves but there is a time and place. gary “issues” are ones of self-control. but don’t we all have other issues of consideration?